Logo description by Matt Williams, James Stanley Barr, and Nicholas Aczel
Logo capture by V of Doom
Editions by Bob Fish and Donny Pearson
Video capture courtesy of Eric S.
Background: Foxstar Productions was the documentary television production arm of 20th Century Fox Television, Inc. that was originally formed in 1993 as a TV movie and mini-series unit under Steve Bell, the former TCFTV network president. The first series was the Alien Nation TV movie series. In 2000, Foxstar was made a unit of Fox Television Studios (now "Fox 21 Television Studios"). Although 20th Century Fox has produced documentaries since 1987, a standard logo wasn't used until 1994.
(1994-2005)
Nicknames: "The Star Tower"
Logo: We see the Fox structure that's the same as the 1994 20th Century Fox logo and the 1995 Fox Searchlight Pictures logo, but there is a giant star on top of the stack and the words:
FOXSTAR
P R O D U C T I O N S
in the lines below. Once the structure is in the familiar distance, the News Corporation byline fades in.
Later Variant: From 2000 onwards, this logo can be seen after a split-second of the Fox Television Studios logo. Both logos zoom-in slowly.
FX/SFX: The zoom-out in the original, the stormy sky, the lightning, and the logo switch in the FTS-FSP combo.
Cheesy Factor: Nice-looking CGI for the most part as with other current Fox logos, but the logo transition from Fox Television Studios to Foxstar Productions is very jarring and unprofessional.
Music/Sounds:
- 1994-2000: A 13-note fanfare, based on the 1994 recording of the 20th Century Fox fanfare with CinemaScope extension as conducted by Bruce Broughton.
- 2000-2005: The FTS-FSP combo is the same as Fox Television Studios, accompanied by a lightning strike.
Music/Sounds Variant: A short version of the 1994 exists.
Availability: Uncommon. Seen on documentaries produced by Fox. It first appeared on A Hollywood Christmas, and it appears on the VHS release of the special. Other documentaries included Rogers and Hammerstein: The Sound of Movies when it originally aired on A&E, AMC’s Backstory, and select episodes of A&E’s Biography, as well as many documentaries from The Travel Channel.
Scare Factor: Minimal to medium. The choppy transition between logos and the structure will probably catch more than a few off-guard, especially if you’ve just never seen it before. None for the original w/o the transition.